DON PILA, Thailand ¨C When Thai farm laborer Anucha Angkaew scrambled out of the bunker where he had been sheltering from rockets on Israel¡¯s border with the Gaza Strip, at around 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, he expected to see Israeli soldiers. Instead, Anucha and his five Thai colleagues were accosted by 10 armed militants, whom he identified as Hamas by the Palestine flags on their sleeves.
¡°We shouted ¡¯Thailand, Thailand¡¯,¡± said Anucha, a soft-spoken 28-year-old with a wispy goatee. ¡°But they didn¡¯t care.¡± Two of the six Thais were killed soon after, including a friend who Anucha said was shot dead in front of him in a random act of violence. The rest were forced onto a truck for a roughly 30 minute ride into Gaza.
Anucha¡¯s first person account offers a glimpse into what many hostages endured ¡ª and some continue to endure. He described sleeping on a sandy floor and beatings by Hamas captors, who he said singled out Israelis for especially brutal treatment.
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